


A Struggle with Monsters

by Chinagirl18



Category: World War Z (2013)
Genre: Canon Characters - Freeform, Character POV, Drama, Escape, F/M, Family, Fear, One Shot, Short One Shot, Spoilers, mild violence, narration
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-19
Updated: 2013-07-19
Packaged: 2017-12-20 17:20:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/889840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chinagirl18/pseuds/Chinagirl18
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After being chased from their car, the Lanes have to find food and shelter in order to escape the zombies, but come into contact with something more human.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Struggle with Monsters

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven't seen the movie and don't want any SPOILERS, don't read any further. If you haven't seen it but don't care about spoilers, continue on.
> 
> Hi there! So I got recent inspiration to write a little snippet from a character's POV from World War Z (the movie, not the novel). I love Mireille Enos, and Brad Pitt was a bonus, but the movie was amazing - it was filled with action and suspense, almost borderline horror - but it kept the realness and the humanity in it. It wasn't a movie of zombies taking over the world- well, actually, it was. But instead of everyone dying, brave people found the zombies' weaknesses, and instead of outright killing them, they found a way to guarantee avoiding conflict - camouflage (I find this a GENIUS idea). It wasn't a slasher movie, it was an intense action/slight family movie. In short, I loved it and I was grandly impressed.
> 
> Anyway, to get to my short snippet, it's from Karin's point of view. They are in the store after having been chased from the car jam in Philadelphia. This is before they seriously think about the possibility of a zombie apocalypse.
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

They were racing through the store, trying to scrounge up any necessary items that would save their lives. Gerry took Rachel to get Symbicort refills for her inhaler while Karin took Connie in a grocery cart to get food that could last them long enough to outlive these horrid things.

Karin passed a tall man, about 6 feet tall. A small shiver ran down her spine. She could feel him staring down at her. She ignored it, however, because she needed to worry about her family and couldn't spend any time concerned over creeps.

She pushed the cart in front of her, Connie seated inside, and stopped to grab jars and boxes of food and threw them all in the cart. She couldn't afford to be picky. The more the better and the longer they lived.

She rushed to the next aisle and stopped to do the same. After shoving about ten jars into the cart beside Connie, she felt skinny but strong arms roughly wrap around her body, pinning her arms to her sides. She gasped. "Hey!" she commanded. "Let go of m-"

She was cut off by a firm backhanded hit to the side of her face, and she immediately felt it become flush and hot. No cruel commands were given, but instead Karin felt herself falling to the ground, hardly able to catch herself with her hands. She was immediately flipped over and she realized that there were two males: one took hold of her ankles, keeping her lower body from kicking him, while the other wrestled with Karin's arms. The second seemed to want a grip on her left hand.

Her thought process sped up with desperation for understanding. Humans. Male. Left hand. Wedding ring! Karin wasn't going to let two penniless thugs take her wedding ring, her identity. She closed her fingers into a fist and started thrashing her head, torso, limbs, occasionally bringing her whole body off the ground at points where her strength and the two males' strengths combined in a unified force.

The sound of Connie's screams - "Mommy? Mommy!" - came into her ears lightly, as if she were underwater. Connie. She had to get Connie away from these monsters. She tried getting up or pushing her weight into the cart, but was too restrained. Thinking fast, she swung all of her body weight into the man behind her, and he stumbled backwards into the cart, successfully pushing the cart - and her daughter - back. However, the cart only traveled a couple feet, and Karin was panicking again, desperately trying to escape the men's grips and take her daughter into her arms. "Gerry!" she yelled. "Gerry!" But her husband didn't appear.

Connie's screams eventually pierced the men's ears, and the one trying to wrestle the wedding ring from Karin's hand dropped her suddenly, turned around, and for two long seconds, Karin feared that he would kill her daughter. But to her relief, he was so determined to get that wedding ring that he didn't have time to bother with screaming brats. He simply shoved the grocery cart that carried Connie, and Karin watched as the cart raced down the aisle, taking her daughter to safety. She screamed all the way down: "Daddy!  _Daddy_!"

Now that Connie was safely away from the desperate men, there was nothing to distract them from taking any valuables from the woman. They had spotted a bracelet on her right wrist and had already started trying to tear it from her arm. The bracelet was becoming so abused, so fast, that, when they had a grip on it, it would feel as if it were digging into her skin, tearing her flesh, split by a single charm silver clasp bracelet that she had received from the family as a Mother's Day present the year before.

She was kicking her legs desperately, angrily, scared. Couldn't the men tell that she wouldn't just give up a fight? She was going to make it as hard as she could to keep them from taking her precious possessions.

"Gerry!  _Gerry_!" she yelled as she thrashed about.

Finally Gerry came, shouting her name and waving his arms. One of the men dropped her and fled at the sight of Gerry's rifle, but the other held firm.

Karin flipped herself over on her stomach, almost crawling towards her husband, and hit her elbows a little too hard on the tile floor. She gritted her teeth as the tingling sensation made its way up her arms, but didn't complain, knowing that it was better than a broken arm.

BAM! She saw the 6 foot tall man fall until he hit the ground, hard. She glanced toward the back of the store, and there she saw Gerry standing there, gun barrel smoking, Rachel standing behind him, holding onto the seam of his coat, and Connie silently crying to his left, still sitting in the cart.

She rose and ran for Gerry, her husband, and Rachel and Connie, her two dear, dear daughters. She was okay. They were all okay.

The fear that had been masked by the brave face put on for her daughters found its way to the surface, and Karin let out racking sobs into Gerry's shoulder, happy to be alive - but also scared to be alive, scared to have to confront these barbarians again, scared to put her family in that position again, scared for the worse to come.

She felt her husband hold her closely, heart beating fast, embracing all of her into himself. She felt her ring with her thumb, and let out a single happy sob that her identity was still with her. They were going to get through this, whatever THIS was, as a family, and survive with all the will that they had.


End file.
